No Takers To Run Helpline For Missing Children

15 February
No Takers To Run Helpline For Missing Children

NO TAKERS TO RUN HELPLINE FOR MISSING CHILDREN:

THERE HAS been no interest to date in Ireland in the implementation of a Europe-wide missing children’s helpline, first advertised almost two and a half years ago.

ComReg have confirmed that, despite national advertisements seeking interested parties to run the hotline on August 27th, 2007, not a single expression of interest has been received to date.

The hotline is one of several “116” numbers, which the EU want to harmonise. The hotline has been assigned to service providers in 12 member states and is up and running in 11 of them: Belgium, Denmark, Greece, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia.

The ISPCC, which runs Childline and which was assigned to run a separate EU children’s helpline on 116111, has said that, while it sees the importance of the missing children’s hotline, it cannot fund the service.

“The ISPCC recognises the importance of and need for the 116000 European harmonised number for missing children, but due to the ongoing financial cost of operating this number we are not in a position to offer this service at present.

“We have a level of expertise in operating 24-hour helpline services with Childline and have put proposals forward in how we could manage the 116000 number but to date we have not been successful in securing funding,” said Childline manager Lloyd Byrne.

As part of reforms to the EU’s regulatory framework for electronic communications adopted in November, a new provision on 116 numbers has been inserted in the Universal Service Directive.

It specifies that member states should make every effort to ensure that citizens have access to a service operating a hotline to report cases of missing children on the 116000 hotline. Member states have until May 25th, 2011, to incorporate these new requirements into their national laws.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission said it would “not hesitate to launch infringement procedures” against states which do not fulfil their obligations for the 116 numbers.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Communications said that, while the 116000 number was not in operation, that it was important to note that Ireland had fully implemented the EU-wide 112 emergency service numbers.

Well i nominate KATE an GERRY.


LET THOSE TWO RUN THE HELPLINE!!

Ireland Eh? Must be that Kate and Gerry have got them all looking for just ONE little girl, Madeleine.

After all, there is plenty of interest from Ireland in the McCann case.

The Smith family? Well they are more credible than the Mccanns. Imagine Kate answering a call.
"err, err, well hello? Err. missing ,err, childrens hot err.. line! Err well gerry come and take this call, i can't cope.

fred...

fred wrote:The Smith family? Well they are more credible than the Mccanns. Imagine Kate answering a call.
"err, err, well hello? Err. missing ,err, childrens hot err.. line! Err well gerry come and take this call, i can't cope.

....errr, have you set up a emmmm, errrr, fund, you know, errrrr yet? Have you errrrr.....ummmm...you know...errr...got a web site yet?

Well i live in the South of Ireland and NEVER EVER have i seen any ads with regard the setting up of any helpline for missing kids,not in the buyand sell,not in the herald not on 104.4fm ,2fm not the wexford people.NOT ANYWHERE. whitewash. load of crap.

I hate to say this, but IMO the whole subject of missing children has been so run to death that I think sheer weariness has settled in and many people just don't want to know. It's the same with Jim Gamble's bullying attitude towards Facebook - all he's doing is getting people's backs up and there are countless Internet bloggers and posters cheering Facebook on in their refusal to accede to Gamble's demands.

Sledgehammer attempts on any subject end up having a negative effect. Subtlety and reasonableness are needed if you want to keep people on side, not rampant and never-ending demands to do this, that or the other.

Maybe the EU should take a step back and allow member countries to make their own arrangements for dealing with the problem of missing children?

Antoinette didnt Christine work hard getting signatures when Amy first went missing? She make a good rep